Backblaze ($50 per year for unlimited storage) is all about simplicity. It backs up nearly everything, requiring almost no input from you until you need to access your data. It's a good choice if you're a novice computer user and just want protection for your most important files. But Backblaze is a little bit too simple, and it doesn't offer the full range of options available from other comparably priced online backup products. Nor does it perform backups nearly as quickly as the competition.

PricingBackblaze offers a 15-day free trial of the service and won't ask for your credit card. The free trial gives you all of Backblaze's capabilities, including unlimited online backups. In fact, it's a bit more flexible than the for-pay plan because it allows an unlimited number of computers on your account. Paid Backblaze accounts limit you to one Mac or PC per license, and start at $5 per month. Monthly, annual, or two-year packages are available at $5, $50, and $95 per month, respectively. The $50 plan's price beats that of Carbonite's similar plan, which costs $59.99 a year.

Unlimited storage is great, especially compared with Norton Online Backup which charges you $50 for a measly 25GB of space. However, you'll have to buy another subscription to add another computer to protect. Other services like CrashPlan, IDrive, and SOS Online Backup let you add multiple computers in one account. You also have to jump through some hoops if you have only one license and need to transfer it to a new machine—say, in the event that you actually use Backblaze for its intended purpose of restoring your backup to a new computer.

Getting StartedOpening an account on Backblaze is easy—too easy. Signing up requires only an email address and a password, without confirmation for either. Unfortunately, my worthless, stubby fingers incorrectly typed my email address.

That meant I wasn't able to do a password restore when I couldn't guess what email had been entered. To further complicate matters, Backblaze generates a custom installer already bound to your account, so my initial backup was whisked into an account I could no longer access. This is a great example of Backblaze's simplicity getting in the way of functionality. Or perhaps it's an example of my own monstrous inadequacy.

Assuming you don't make my mistakes, installing Backblaze is a snap. The company has clients available for both Mac and Windows computers, and the installation is a painless, if lengthy, process.

Once Backblaze is installed, it scans your entire hard drive for included file types (documents and media files), and starts backing up immediately—without your say-so. Unlike most online backup solutions, it doesn't even give you the chance to indicate specific files or folders that you want backed up. Backblaze is all about simplicity, and the simplest way to back up a computer is to have the service decide for you. The surprisingly cute installer warns that this process may take days, or even weeks, to complete—which was reflected in our speed tests, but more on that later.

Note that while Backblaze backs up all user files on your computer, it won't copy applications or system files. If you're looking for a fully bootable backup, try Carbonite or IDrive's system image backup. That said, Backblaze can back up an attached USB hard drive.

If you're on a Windows computer, Backblaze places an icon in the notification tray, which gives you quick access to app settings, a shortcut to the Backblaze website, and the option to trigger a system backup. Unlike Norton, the Backblaze interface was compact and well organized. I had no problem finding settings for selecting which hard disk to back up or when to schedule backups. The same is true on Macintosh, where Backblaze puts its settings where they belong: in the System Preferences menu. Other Mac developers should take note.

Interestingly, you can schedule a backup but by default Backblaze watches for changes and makes updates to your backup continuously.

Backblaze's presence on your computer is minimal. It does not, for instance, add file-system integration such as right-click options for adding files or folders to your backup. That's because Backblaze backs up everything, but I prefer the more-flexible approach of other services.

I really like that Backblaze is very clear about its security protocols. The Security settings explains that your files are encrypted prior to transfer and remain encrypted when at rest on Backblaze's servers, and that the service uses SSL when uploading your backup. If you're concerned about Backblaze staff, a hacker, or a nosey law enforcement agency snooping your backup, you can manage your own encryption keys. This comes at the price of losing the ability to perform a password reset on your account, but does give you more control of your data. Security wonks will love these features, but will probably want the additional flexibility and features provided by SpiderOak's secure backup service.

PerformanceBackblaze's backup speed was anything but blazing in our testing. Since the service doesn't let you specify files and folders for backup treatment, it presents a challenge for performance testing. After adding all the C: drive folders to the exception list in Settings, we created a new disk partition for the test file set so that only those would be processed and uploaded.

For performance and bandwidth testing, we test backup processing and uploading speed by backing up a 100MB set of 100 folders and files (188 files in all) of mixed content types and sizes and timing how long it took to complete. We used PCMag's superfast 177Mbps (upload speed) corporate Internet connection so that bandwidth wouldn't be the limiting speed factor.

Backblaze's result of 5 minutes and 4 seconds to back up 100MB of data is light-years behind SOS Online Backup's 41 seconds. IDrive and Carbonite also took a fraction of the time Backblaze took. This slowness could factor into your service decision if you want a large number of gigabytes uploaded quickly, since the speed differences among services will become increasingly apparent as the amount of data increases.

The table belows shows how the whole set of online backup providers tested fared.

Web Interface and Restoring DataBackblaze does have a toe-hold on your computer, but most of the heavy lifting of the service is done through the Backblaze website. The left-hand nav bar lets you see an overview of all the computers you've currently enrolled with Backblaze. The View/Restore Files tab is where you'll go to bundle backed-up files into a downloadable ZIP. Alternatively, you can pay $99 to have a USB flash drive (up to 128GB) mailed to you, or $189 for a USB hard drive (up to 4TB). However, View/Restore is actually a bit of a misnomer since you can't actually preview your files, as you can with IDrive and Nero BackItUp.

To create your restore download, use the search box or the file tree to select your files. Once you're satisfied, Backblaze begins gathering your information together. When it's ready, it'll be accessible in the My Restores section of the website, where restore bundles are saved for seven days after you request them. You'll receive an email alert when your restore is ready, too.

I opted to download my restore files from the Backblaze website, and received a ZIP file with my files in their original file structure. This includes any parent folders, though these will be empty except for the folders leading to your selected folders or files. I don't particularly care for this approach, but it does preserve your files and folders as they were originally.

Backblaze says that it keeps 30 days' worth of versions for each file. This breaks down to hourly versions on the first day, daily versions for the following week, and weekly versions for the rest of the 30-day span.

The Mobile ExperienceBackblaze has nearly identical apps for Android and iOS, but no app for that poor little wastrel among mobile OSes, Windows Phone. Either shows you the computers you've enrolled in Backblaze, and both let you navigate through the file structure of your backups.

So far, it's pretty much identical to the Web experience, except with a little more polish. But it also lets you download individual files from your backup and view them in the mobile app—a feature sorely missing from the Backblaze website. You can even play multimedia files. You can also share files from the apps, but you're limited to the built-in sharing options (such as, share sheets in iOS). I would like to see a more robust mobile app from Backblaze, one that includes seamless streaming of backed up media files.

Other backup services, such as Livedrive, offer a syncing option that mirrors Dropbox. SOS Online Backup and IDrive go even further by letting you share specific files from your backup with others. Backblaze just doesn't have these features.

Track Your ComputerPart of the incentive to buy an online backup plan is to make sure your data will survive in case something horrible happens to your computer—something horrible, like having it stolen. Backblaze goes even further by letting you track your computer's location from the Backblaze website.

From the Locate My Computer panel, I could view my computer's current location on Google Maps. Backblaze located my test computers within the PCMag Labs with remarkable accuracy. You can also view the most recently backed up files, the current ISP serving the computer, and the computer's current IP address. All useful information to help recover my device. If theft is a concern, consider SOS Online Backup, which includes remote wiping for stolen computers.

Blaze It?Backblaze seems ideal for the novice computer user—or the technophobic grandparent of a novice computer user. With just a few clicks to create an account, Backblaze sets to work backing up your files and doesn't need to be thought of again until a catastrophe occurs or a new computer is purchased. I particularly like that, despite being dead-simple, Backblaze includes smart encryption features.

But more-experienced users will scoff at Backblaze's limitations. Detailed control over backup selection, the ability to view files remotely, sharing backed-up files, and file syncing are just part of what the competition is serving up. And though Backblaze's super slow upload speed isn't a deal breaker, it is awfully frustrating. Lastly, I'm a little puzzled why Backblaze makes such a big deal about backing up everything, going so far as to give you little recourse for choosing what gets backed up, when it can't create a bootable backup. Look to Editors' Choice winners CrashPlan, IDrive, and SOS Online Backup for more control, richer feature sets, and faster performance.

Max Eddy is a Junior Software Analyst investigating the latest and greatest apps for Android. Paranoid by nature, he's also keeping an eye on emerging threats and countermeasures at SecurityWatch with Neil Rubenking and Fahmida...

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